Team

SURGE: Classic

SURGE: Classic

Research Questions

SURGE research as implemented through
the computer game will focus at three interacting levels of scaffolding
to address the learning goals.

The first level focuses on highlighting the salience of core physics
concepts and interactions in underlying game design and mechanics.

The second level focuses at the level of the game interface design
in terms of structuring and linking interface representations through
cognitive processing-based principles that support students in
distinguishing, understanding, and articulating core physics concepts
and interactions. SURGE research will begin by focusing at these first
two levels.

In later phases of the research, SURGE will shift focus to include a
third level in terms of structuring social scaffolding to facilitate
articulation and evaluation of the core physics concepts focused upon at
the first two levels.

Audience

SURGE is designed for many different
educational settings with a special emphasis on 7th and 8th grade
students. It is being designed for use by a diverse set of students
with a wide variety of backgrounds, however, all the way from 5th grade
through undergraduate physics courses.

Learning Goals and Approach

Highest Level Learning Goals

Newton’s 1st and 2nd Laws and
kinematics and adding Newton’s 3rd Law as measured by the FCI.
Decomposing these high level goals means:

• How velocity affects trajectory• The independence of the x and y components of motion

Kinematics

• Acceleration is the change in velocity over time• Differentiating among decreasing velocity, constant velocity, and increasing velocity• Velocity is the change in position over time

Approach to Learning

The goal of each level is to help
highlight a specific relationship and then integrate it into
increasingly complex settings. There are categories of cases that
focuses on specific relationships central to mechanics. These highlight
specific cases that define a key relationship and cases of the domain of
a larger extrinsic formalism.

While playing the game, students have the general concept and are ready for the formal term and organization to be added to it.

Next we connect these relationships
and ideas to the formal representation of the field in terms of units,
graphs, dot traces, velocity vectors, force arrows, etc.

Finally we connect these understandings to the formal laws and definitions.

Example: Newton's First Law includes the following cases

• Balanced external forces on a non-moving object results in no motion• Balanced forces on a moving object results in no change in motion• Unbalanced forces on a moving object changes motion• Unbalanced forces on non-moving object causes motion

Assessment Goals, Measures, and Instruments

Initial Study Assessments

Pre-Post Assessment based on Simplified Force Concept Inventory
(FCI) developed by Hestenes et al. of formal disciplinary understanding
of the concepts.

In-Game Performance data based on scoring components.

Fall 2009 Additional Assessments

In-Game Performance using analytical software by Pragmatics to
analyze position and velocity vector data taken every 0.5 seconds in
game combined with a coordinated event timeline in each level.

Winter 2009 - Future

Embedded assessment in game levels. Some levels will be constructed
so that students will only be able to “solve” the level and reach the
goal if they understand the underlying physics concepts. Other levels
will be presented in terms of characters in the game asking the player
for advice in solving challenges similar to those faced earlier by the
player and then explored in depth in simulation.

Findings

The first SURGE study took place in
Summer 2009. We analyzed 24 undergraduate and graduate students playing
SURGE. In addition to giving pre- and post-implementation questions from
the FCI, we collected observation notes about the students as they
played, students provided written descriptions of their gameplay
experience, and the students were interviewed afterwards to provide
insights into their understanding of the physics and the game. In-game
data indicated that players made successful (although variable) use of
growing tacit understanding of physics concepts to complete levels of
the game. The data from pre and post tests strongly reinforce the
potential of games to help students learn, but also underscore their
potential to reinforce alternative conceptions as well as normative
conceptions. The game actually resulted in a significant decrease (Chi
squared = 4.75, p = .029) on one item from the FCI by
unintentionally focusing students’ attention on another physics
relationship (we had not yet added all of the intended functionality to
the interface relevant to projectile motion and the independence of the x and y components of an object’s velocity). The students demonstrated significant (p = .037) gains on the rest of the posttest.

A second study is currently underway
to investigate potential cultural differences between 200 seventh and
eighth grade students in Minnesota and 250 eighth grade students in
Taiwan as they interact with two levels of integration of formal vector
representations (instructed concepts) across the gameplay (spontaneous
concepts). The design will be 2x2 in terms of culture and integration of
formal representations. Students are being randomly assigned to
representational conditions within each class.

Clark, D. B., Nelson,
B., D’Angelo, C., & Menekse, M., (2009). Integrating critique to
support learning about physics in video games. Paper presented as part
of a structured session for presentation at the National Association of
Research in Science Teaching (NARST) 2009 meeting. Garden Grove, CA.